It’s raining this morning in Guelph so I’m very glad I got my long run done yesterday and today is my light day and then core indoors.  On yesterday’s long run my fitness suffered more than my injury, which is a good sign right now.  It’s still touch and go with the tendon, but I think it’s almost healed.

Now I’m off to Ellicottville, NY to spend Christmas with the family and smash my quads on all the hill running.  There’s no Internet there so my next update will be New Years.  I think last night was my New Years celebration… I want to start 2008 feeling great, not like I do right now.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays y’all.

If you want a good core workout, build a giant pyramid in your front yard and then put on your best gangster pose

hollow it out and light ‘er up for the festive touch (click pics to enlarge)

Just got done an hour long run on the roads with very little pain.  I have to thank Margot Mountjoy, Brenda Scott-Thomas, Marcel Meresz and Lance Dawson for getting me back up and running.  We have a great medical support team for the National Endurance Centre here in Guelph.  I’m hoping by the end of the week I’ll be fully functional and start doing some tempo soon.  The treadmill is easier on the ankle than uneven surfaces (ie. snow) so I’ve used the tready and bike for the past few days. 

On Sunday night I was shovelling snow and clearing out the driveways of my neighbours after the plow came by.  As I was about to go back inside I realized my cell phone had fallen out of my front pocket of my sweatshirt.  I looked back at the road and the behemoth piles of snow and thought I’d be buying a new cell phone Monday morning.  My roommates were out shovelling too, so one of them was designated to calling my phone over and over again in hopes of hearing a ring.  I went over to the main pile that I worked on and was taking off an inch of snow at a time and putting it on the road… my other roommates we working on other piles.  Finally Sean heard a ring and dug into the pile and found it… big relief.  If you saw how wide these mounds of snow were you’d be impressed… instead you’re probably regretting having read this paragraph. 

Being injured sucks.  I’ve been very lucky so far in my career in the injury department so I can’t complain too much and my next race isn’t until the end of January so it’s not the worst time to be cross training.  The week of nationals I had a sore tendon in my ankle, I toughed out the week and then completely wrecked it when I raced on snow with spikes.  It hurt to walk the night of Nationals.  The next morning it was fine to walk on and I figured I was on the quick road to recovery since I was planning to take the whole week off running.  Then last Sunday rolled around and I went out for a 30 minute run to resume running again.  The run only lasted 13 minutes and I walked home.  I saw a doctor Monday morning, physio Wednesday and another physio later today.  I try running every few days but it has been too sore every time I got out.  My next attempt will be Sunday.  The tendon is visibly swollen right at the top of my ankle.

I don’t like the elliptical machine, stationary bike or pool running.  Today I used the elliptical for 5 minutes until I noticed it was bugging my tendon, then I got on the bike for 20 minutes, then I went to the pool and got a nose bleed 30 minutes into my pool run, perfect excuse to get out of there early.  Tomorrow I may give my body a complete rest and then hopefully Sunday I’ll be running.. if not, bike and pool for a few more days.

To keep me motivated I keep on thinking of the training and races I’ll be doing next year.  I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting year. I guess I could probably use ‘California Dreaming’ as a blog title every post from now until mid April…

Fraud experts to track drug cheats

Paul Kelso
Friday December 7, 2007
The Guardian

Specialist investigators including former police officers, fraud investigators, forensic accountants and medical and IT experts will be recruited to track down drugs cheats as part of reforms aimed at stamping out doping in sport.UK Sport is to hand over authority for anti-doping operations to the new independent National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada) which will liaise with law- enforcement agencies as well as having enhanced investigative powers of its own. The new agency, expected to be in place by 2010 at the latest, will have an increased staff and will need an annual budget of up to £8m, double the £4m spent by UK Sport currently on anti-doping.

The recruitment of investigators, which will see governing bodies lose the power to determine the charges that cheating athletes will face, is a response to the growing threat posed by the organised production and trafficking in performance-enhancing substances.

Recent cases including the Balco scandal, Operation Puerto in Spain – which uncovered systematic doping in cycling – and the discovery of 56 steroid laboratories and the arrests of 120 people by Operation Raw Deal in the United States have emphasised the impact that law-enforcement agencies can have.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) congress in Madrid last month stressed the need to work more closely with such agencies.

UK law enforcement is seen as having a poor record in relation to performance-enhancing drugs, which have a low priority for police and customs.

Supplying steroids is an offence in the UK but there have been, on average, fewer than 10 convictions a year in the past decade, and last week an FBI official criticised British agencies for failing to cooperate with Raw Deal, which involved itself with a large number of other overseas agencies.

With genuine concern that there could be a “British Balco” operating with impunity, the changes are intended to make life harder for the cheats.

“If you apply the logic that applies to the drugs trade generally and look at the international tendrils of Operation Raw Deal, it would suggest that there is a significant chance that the UK is involved in the trade in performance-enhancing drugs,” said John Scott, UK Sport’s director of drug-free sport.

Here’s a little clip from Nats, a couple of the shots are different from Flocast.  I wish that camera on the back of the gator went right to the finish line… 

If I knew how to convert .MOV to .WMV I could make a better video. 

I barely pulled off the win yesterday at the AGSI National XC Champs in Guelph over teammate Eric Gillis.  I seriously thought I was going to finish second when Gillis and I got to the bottom of the hill with 200m to go.  He has been stronger on the hills this fall than myself but I decided I wasn’t going out without a fight.  So I pushed hard halfway up the hill and got a small lead that I was able to hold onto until the finish line.  Speed River went 1,2,4,5,13 to claim the team title. 

Flotrack.com has a video of the race and many interviews up

http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=130

My friend was filming the race and captured this… enjoy

Results

    1  630 Reid Coolsaet                             Speed River TFC      1979  29:55.7

    2  631 Eric Gillis                               Speed River TFC      1980  29:56.2

    3  621 Dylan Wykes                               Physi-Kult           1983  30:12.7

    4  635 Rob Watson                                Speed River TFC      1984  30:27.0

    5  634 Taylor Murphy                             Speed River TFC      1979  30:29.4

    6  638 Derek Nakluski                            Toronto Olympic      1982  30:37.3

    7  659 Trevor Caldwell                           University of Toront 1979  30:45.2

    8  652 Chris Winter                                                   1986  30:47.1

    9  647 Joël Bourgeois                                                 1971  30:56.9

   10  579 James Gosselin                            Brooks Canada Marath 1977  30:57.7

   11  596 Spencer Morrison                          Hershey Harriers     1983  30:58.1

   12  627 Cleve (Michael) Thorson                   Saugeen              1981  31:00.1

   13  629 Scott Arnald                              Speed River TFC      1981  31:04.5

   14  574 Colin Fewer                               Athletic North East  1977  31:07.2

   15  644 Matthew Kerr                              Tri-City Track Club  1976  31:12.1

   16  661 Alex Hutchinson                           University of Toront 1975  31:15.6

   17  657 Geoff Kerr                                University of Calgar 1984  31:18.5

   18  618 Kris Swanson                              Pacific Athletics    1981  31:20.9

   19  637 Saheed Khan                               Toronto Olympic      1984  31:21.4

   20  633 Taylor Milne                              Speed River TFC      1981  31:25.9

The 2007 AGSI National Cross Country Championships are coming up on Saturday and I’m pretty excited that they are being held in Guelph.  It takes me about 9 minutes to run to the course from my house, so I’ve actually run the loop quite a few times for my morning runs.  I’m not going to beat around the bush here, I want to win this race.  Simon Bairu, the perennial XC champ and Paul Morrison will not be running, and that opens it up… a lot.  The competition will still be stiff with the likes of Eric Gillis, Ryan McKenzie and Dylan Wykes.  Taylor Murphy, Taylor Milne, Rob Watson, Matt Kerr and Joel Bourgeois should be up there too.  On the team side I’d bet on our Speed River team to win.  For those that are unfamiliar with the Great White North, this race serves as both our Club Nationals and our World XC trials.  www.FloTrack.com will be on hand to cover all the action.

Here is the team.

From left to right:

Eric “E-Bone” Gillis.  Hails from Antigonish, Nover Scosha, he will bring CIS XC and Bad Boy Gold Medals to the table as well as 13:36 and 28:42 prowess.  He wants to win as badly as myself, and he may be better prepared this season.  Oh, and a 66th place at World XC long course to boot.

Taylor “T-Bone” Murphy.  Has almost been a Speed Riverian as long as I.  Brings World Cross experience and a couple of track sub 30’s to the table.  He loves the tough conditions and will place two times better than he would predict. 

Cleve-“land” Thorson.  Will be replaced by Brendan “Belfountain Bomber” Hunt.  The Bomber was a clutch 5th man in 2002 to help clinch the U of Guelph Gryphons 4th straight CIS (Canadian University) XC title.  He has since captured All-Canadian status as a harrier.  Cleve actually runs for Saugeen Track Club, but we won’t hold that against him because he’s organizing a sweet party Saturday night at the Brass Taps.

Rob “Destroyer” Watson.  Every team needs a steeplechaser and we have an 8:38 one.  Destroyer has made the NCAA finals and he’s in better shape now.  He has tattoos on his arms so it makes our team look a little tougher (I know, I know… it may not be possible for us to be any tougher). 

Scott “Scotty” Arnald.  A long time rival of the Guelph Gryphons (Waterloo wasn’t really a rival) and Speed River (Tri-City Track Club finished second the last time the mighty River won the crown) he has now joined our forces as we seek world domination, well at least a Canadian XC team title.  A 3:45 1500m runner who has represented Canada at the World University XC Champs, he will bring it Saturday. 

Reid “Coldneck” Coolsaet.  Time to toot my own horn…  Now that Bairu is out I have the best Canadian XC results in the field for the past four years, including a couple of silvers, toot toot!  Now that I have the Manchester Road Race under my belt I’m ready to rock. 

Taylor “Tay” Milne.  He’s our team Miler (3:41 1500m) with a 2nd place finish at the Canadian 10km Road champs this fall, (that should squash any doubts that he can’t race longer than 5km).  T-Milne has represented Canada at World XC and NACAC XC.  If it’s cold on race day expect Tay to sport the Kermit (see pic) or a toque shaped like a hockey helmet (strap included).  With his breakdancing skills he may just win the after party too.

More info on the race at www.guelphrunning.com

I did a little talk at the Niagara Olympic Club banquet last night.  It was a lot of fun and the local paper covered it so I wouldn’t have to write about it, haha.  Stay tuned for a National XC Speed River preview later this week.

Quick update from Manchester before I get some Turkey. Round two as I’ve already celebrated Canuck Thanksgiving in early October.

Beautiful day, 16 C (61F) and sunny so I thought everybody would run fast.  It wasn’t really the case though as the race strung out before the 3 mile mark and almost everybody was running alone.  I was about 15th at the 2 mile mark and Fagan was way ahead in first, he killed it up the hill and gapped the pack.  I picked off a few guys on the downhill before the 3 mile mark and then just went through the motions in 9th until 100 to go when I passed Ryan Warrenburg and Michael Aish to get 7th in 22:18 (22:14 in 2005, 22:04 in 2006).  Fagan got passed at the end by Letherby who won in 21:54.  Once again a fun time in Manchester.  Scalped Frank Shorter again, boooyah! 

Andrew Letherby 21:54
Martin Fagan 21:55
Brian Olinger
Ian Dobson 22:03
Dagne Alemu
Girma Tola 22:17
Me 22:18
Ryan Warrenburg 22:20
Michael Aish
Dan Huling
Dylan Wykes 22:30
Matt Gabrielson

Amy Yoder-Begley
Mary Cullen
Megan Metcalfe
Molly Huddle
Kassie Anderson

Full article:   http://www.letsrun.com/2007/man1120.php 

Dobson’s key competition will likely come from a pair of Ethiopian Olympians, Dagne Alemu and Girma Tola.  Alemu has won three consecutive races since winning the York White Rose Run on Nov. 11; Tola won the Baltimore Half-Marathon on Oct. 13 and the Boston Mayor’s Cup Cross Country on Oct. 28.  Also in the mix will be 2002 Manchester champion, Andrew Letherby of Australia; New Zealand Olympian Michael Aish; Canadians Reid Coolsaet and Dylan Wykes; Irishman Martin Fagan; steeplechasers Dan Huling and Brian Olinger; and milers Rob Myers and Grant Robison.